putative

English

WOTD – 7 March 2010

Etymology

First attested 1432, from Middle French putatif, from Latin putātīvus (“supposed, purported”), from putātus (“thought”), from putō (“I think, I consider, I reckon”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpju.tə.tɪv/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpju.tə.tɪv/, [ˈpju.ɾə.ɾɪv]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈpjʉ.tə.tɪv/, [ˈpjʉ.ɾə.ɾɪv]

Adjective

putative (comparative more putative, superlative most putative)

1. (derogatory) Commonly believed or deemed to be the case; accepted by supposition rather than as a result of proof.

   Synonyms: ostensible, purported, reputed, supposed

   • 1879 November 9, Maurice Mauris, “A Materialistic Artist”, in New York Times, page 10:

     [T]he lady . . . insisted upon going herself, requesting me to mind for a second the baby. . . . lo! the baby awoke and stared at me with a pair of big frightened eyes, which the little thing in another moment rolled in all directions, as if in search of its putative mother.

   • 1989, William E. Colby and Jeremy J. Stone, "US must support Thailand if Cambodia is to survive," Milwaukee Sentinel (Los Angeles Times Service), 28 Oct. (retrieved 15 Sep. 2009):

     Just as Prince Sihanouk is fronting for the Khmer Rouge today . . . so also was he their putative leader from 1970 to 1975.

   • 2006 August 18, Unmesh Kher, “No Neat Endings for the JonBenet Case”, in Time:

     Karr's past does raise suspicions. When he was arrested in Bangkok, he was living in a dormitory-like guesthouse in a neighborhood frequented by sex tourists. . . . Of course, Karr's putative pedophilia would not make him guilty of murder.

   • 2016 August 11, Mary Karr, “The Crotchgrabber”, in The New Yorker‎^[1]:

     I’ve been subject to several gropings and gross jibes of the type you’d expect behind a junior-high gym dance, and they’ve been delivered by grownups, putative pals, not one of whom I even dimly considered getting jiggy with.

2. (loose or possibly mistaken use) Prospective, potential, proposed, possible.
   • 2018, Samuel J Fell, Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen and John Shand, "Music reviews: John Coltrane, Bob Dylan and Catherine Britt", Sydney Morning Herald, July 20, 2018 [2]

     From the duration of the material (47 minutes) it seems the clear intent was to record an album, rather than just lay down a few tracks. [...] Because the putative album was not released Coltrane never named the originals, which are delineated by Impulse's numbering system.

   • 2023, Dan Hodges, "Can Labour's Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves serve up the right dish for business after years on the scrambled egg circuit?", Mail on Sunday, 7 October 2023 [3]

     The process of selecting which businesses should be allowed to kiss the ring of putative Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and presumptive Chancellor Reeves, has not been left to chance.

Derived terms

• putative marriage

Translations

commonly believed or deemed to be the case

• Armenian: ենթադրյալ (hy) (entʻadryal)
• Bulgarian: мним (bg) (mnim), предполагаем (bg) (predpolagaem)
• Catalan: putatiu
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 推定的 (zh) (tuīdìng de), 假定的 (zh) (jiǎdìng de)

• Czech: domnělý (cs) m, putativní c
• Dutch: zogenaamd (nl), vermoedelijk (nl), vermeend (nl)
• Estonian: arvatav, oletatav
• Finnish: oletettu (fi)
• French: putatif (fr), présumé (fr)
• German: mutmaßlich (de), vermeintlich (de), angeblich (de)
• Greek: φερόμενος (ως) (ferómenos (os)), υποτιθέμενος (el) (ypotithémenos)
• Hungarian: feltételezett (hu), vélelmezett (hu), vélt (hu)
• Icelandic: meintur m
• Italian: putativo (it)
• Japanese: 推定 (ja) (すいてい, suitei)
• Macedonian: претпоставен m (pretpostaven), наводен m (navoden)
• Norwegian: antatt, formentlig, formodet
• Polish: domniemany (pl) m, przypuszczalny (pl) m
• Portuguese: putativo (pt) m
• Russian: предположи́тельный (ru) (predpoložítelʹnyj), вероя́тный (ru) (verojátnyj), мни́мый (ru) (mnímyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: претпо̀стављен, наводан, вје̏роја̄тан

  Roman: pretpòstavljen (sh), navodan, vjȅrojātan (sh)

• Spanish: presunto (es), supuesto (es), putativo (es) (only for relatives)
• Swedish: förment (sv), förmodad (sv)
• Turkish: varsayılan, farz edilen, varsayımsal (tr)
• Ukrainian: га́даний (hádanyj), припусти́мий (prypustýmyj)

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /py.ta.tiv/
• Homophone: putatives

Adjective

putative

1. feminine singular of putatif

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /putaˈtiːvə/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

putative

1. inflection of putativ:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pu.taˈti.ve/
• Rhymes: -ive
• Hyphenation: pu‧ta‧tì‧ve

Adjective

putative

1. feminine plural of putativo

Anagrams

• putivate